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UK-based couple share horror story in attempt to return to Guyana
—Says politicians paint glowing picture but reality is a stark difference
Mr. John Sutton and His wife Lynette.
Kaieteur News – Every now and then, Guyanese politicians make an appeal to the masses, calling on the Diaspora to return home and invest. Those who respond to these calls are often faced with the difficulty of packing up, leaving a developed country and coming home to Guyana.
As if the move by itself is not difficult enough for one couple, the account of returning to Guyana has been nothing but horrid, to say the least. In 2016, Lynette and John Sutton planned to move to Guyana from the United Kingdom; they estimated that it would take about a year or two to get everything worked out and get settled here. Lynette, a Guyanese by birth moved to England decades ago and married John, a native of the UK, did not estimate that with the road blocks and difficulties they would face and that they would still not be complete more than seven years later.
According to the couple, the initial plan was first to register a company here and purchase a plot of land to build a house. Mr. Sutton recently explained in a letter to the press some of the difficulties. He noted that before the company was established there were difficulties and considerable costs involved in obtaining the relevant documents including Tax Identification Numbers (TIN). “We persevered and the company was ultimately registered, however we have had no support from the equivalent of [entities]. We have requested by email and telephone for the dates and timing of the Annual Return, but have not had any response. After every request we have been repeatedly told that “‘the correct person to advise you will contact you’, but they never do,” Mr. Sutton said.
The plot of land the couple brought for $6M but the housing papers cannot be found.
As it relates to the request to purchase a suitable house plot, the couple registered and were told that a letter would be sent inviting them to choose a plot and pay for it. Several years went by with them requesting when they can be called to a meeting to complete the process of acquiring a house plot. In 2020, the Suttons became desperate and Mrs. Sutton’s sister, who is resident in Guyana, approached the Housing Minister on their behalf. The minister promised to look into the matter which he did after meeting with the couple. “At the meeting,” Mr. Sutton explained that his wife who always desired to return to her homeland “had to practically beg for a plot,” which was eventually offered to them at the cost of $6 million.
As a result of the offer, he explained that a letter was issued and the deposit requested was paid. The man said that the balance of $3 million which was due no later than December3rd 2021 was paid in November 21 that year. He explained: “We started building as we are anxious to establish ourselves and start business here in Guyana.” “We returned to Guyana the last week in April 2022 and asked to complete the process, but low and behold our documents cannot be found,” he added. This, Mr. Sutton said is in spite of having received several emails confirming that all is in order we just need to come into the office for the signing-off process and Transport to be prepared which I understand takes several years..”
Sutton, who worked within the financial and creative sectors in the UK, said that they have found that navigating through the various departments very convoluted and slow due to the lack of appropriate technology and staff training. He explained: “We sat in the Housing Office for several hours on two separate days and still our documents cannot be found. We were told to go away and someone will ring next week. We were constantly given the run-a-round.”
He explained too, that the business procedures need to work a lot faster and efficiently than they do in Guyana to attract and encourage the Diaspora from around the world. Added to this, Mr. Sutton noted the constant power outages is another discouraging factor that would put off any remigrant dreaming of returning home.
He stressed while it is good to paint a glowing picture for re-migration and inviting people to come to Guyana, the reality must match the dream being sold. “The electrical system fails on a regular basis for as long as six hours at a time, we have only been here one week and the power has been off for four days, already. Expecting us an excessive amount of duty to be paid on a generator to address this problem seems like a slap in the face for us,” the gentleman added.
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